Germany’s invasion proved economically and physically devastating for the USSR and its surrounding countries as they were often stripped of resources that Germany required to fund its war effort. The scorched-earth tactic used by both German and Soviet armies destroyed entire towns and almost all agricultural land and livestock in western Russia, eventually leading to famine and a high civilian casualty rate. Hitler had also expressed his wishes that the urban populations of the USSR and the surrounding Slavic countries to be starved so as to replace them with German upper class citizens and in order to produce food surpluses’ for Germany’s use. Overall the Soviet Union suffered the biggest casualties with conservative estimates at 11 million military, and 13 million civilian deaths. This massive loss of life brought about the loss of 12% of the USSR’s population and devastating social and economic effects. However these effects were lightly rebuffed by the reparations received by the Soviet Union from Germany and other Axis countries. These payments played a significant role in the restructuring and reorganization of the USSR’s economy primarily within the industrial sector. Altogether the USSR received $ 900,000,000 from Italy, Hungary, Finland and Romania which significantly aided Soviet reconstruction and their further development into a future industrial nation second only to the US.
Then on December 5th 1942 came the Wermacht’s first defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad where they suffered 155,000 deaths and casualties in three weeks, the tide of war changed significantly as from that point on the USSR enjoyed one victory after the other and gradually repelled the German army back to Germany, however at great cost to themselves. The cause of this turnaround has been attributed mainly to Hitler’s orders of delaying Stalingrad’s invasion, in an effort to support the invasion force at Kiev and crush the uprisings in Yugoslavia and Greece and the freezing cold weather which Germans troops weren’t used to. However a historian Viktor Suvorov claims that the key to the USSR’s success was a large and better equipped Soviet Army that had secretly planned a counter operation “Thunderstorm” which was implemented two weeks following the German invasion, targeting Axis oil supplies in Romania.
Following Operation Barbarossa, on May 11th 1945 all German armed forces surrendered to Soviet troops officially ending the war. However this victory cost the USSR 20% of Russia’s overall resources, a large part of its population and almost completely destroyed its infrastructure. However despite the extent of the destruction which surpassed any other countries, Stalin had found himself in a strategic position of power as he now had the largest battle-trained army positioned right at the center of Europe occupying Berlin and large parts of Germany. This gave him leverage against the other Allied powers (which he deeply distrusted) forcing them to give in to his wishes of setting up Soviet friendly governments in East Europe and Germany (or buffer zone) so as to provide certain protection against future western aggression. Another positive outcome from the war for the USSR was that with the destruction of Britain and Frances armies, their status as Imperial powers was now undermined. This left the USSR and USA to emerge as the strongest military forces or superpowers of the late 20th century and allowed the Soviet Union to expand its influence beyond its borders into surrounding ‘satellite’ states. The effect this had was that despite the Soviet Union being massively behind the US in economic and technological measures (mainly due to the destruction of Russian infrastructure and the invention of the atomic bomb), the USSR still exercised influence and control over almost all of Eastern Europe through military and economic agreements eventually culminating in the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform). Some historians believe that the Soviet Union and Stalin himself were so interested in retaining Eastern Europe as a buffer zone from concern of future attacks by the west; this is supported by Stalin’s demands in the Tehran Conference, however others say that Stalin’s only interest was in siphoning East Europeans resources for the USSR.
After the end of World War II the Soviet Union also experienced a foreign relations rebirth, where once it had been denied recognition by the west and treated as an outsider on global politics, it evolved to become one of the founding members of the United Nations with a seat on the UN Security Council and the right to veto any of its resolutions. The USSR has become a key figure in international relations and an arbiter of the world’s future. Historians disagree as to the reason why Stalin decided to engage the USSR in international relations as some believe that it was merely another safeguard against a united western invasion, however others believe that it was another method of expanding Soviet power throughout the world.
However within the USSR itself, the war hadn’t changed the oppressive nature of the Communist regime. Stalin remained distrustful as ever and even carried out small purges against the same Generals who had won him the war out of fear of their rising popularity. He did this by abolishing the Stavka and GKO while also demoting several top commanders. Also the previously failed policy of collectivization which had temporarily broken down through the war was resumed and re-implemented. However the extent to which this was successful was limited, since by 1950 250,000 kolkhozes had been created, but with almost 50% of land still remaining in private hands.
Concluding the Second World War brought a variety of good and bad effects to the Soviet Union. The destruction caused by the German invasion brought the Soviet economy to its knees along with a raging famine which led many people to starvation is argued as placing the Soviet Union as the most severely weakened of all countries that participated in the war. However the wars conclusion also produced a power gap previously occupied by Imperialist European powers which was then filled by the Soviet Union mainly due to its leverage over the other European Nations and the existence of its newly formed battled-hardened military strength. This strength then extended into other areas including a central position on the global stage and breakthrough’s in technological and scientific fields. This allowed the Soviet Union to expand its power and influence and develop into a Superpower of the 20th century.
